BRACKETS · 01 of 03
What is a bracket?
A bracket takes a pile of things and makes them fight.
Two at a time. Winner moves on. Loser goes home. Repeat until one thing is left standing and everyone else is mad about it.
It's March Madness logic, applied to anything: breakfast cereals, 90s sitcoms, movie villains, the correct way to eat a pizza. Whatever your group can't stop arguing about.
Every matchup is a choice
Each matchup is two entries, head to head. You pick one. That's it.
No ties. No "well, it depends." No rating them both an eight out of ten and calling it a day.
That's the cruelty and the genius of it. You might love tacos and pizza equally, deep in your heart. The bracket does not care. Choose.
How a bracket plays out
- The commissioner adds the entries (anywhere from 4 to 199) and invites the voters.
- Matchups open in rounds. Everyone votes on each open matchup.
- A matchup closes once every voter has weighed in. The winner advances, and the field gets smaller.
- The early rounds give way to the Quarterfinals, the Final Four, and The Final. One champion. No refunds.
A few rules worth knowing
There's no clock.A matchup waits for every vote. You can see who has and hasn't voted, so if it's stuck, you know exactly who to text.
You can change your mind.Switch your vote any time before the matchup closes. After that, it's history.
Votes are secret until they aren't. Nobody can see who you picked while the matchup is open. Once it closes, every vote is on the record. Forever.
Awkward numbers are fine.If your entry count doesn't fit a clean bracket, a short play-in round settles the extras first.
Why brackets settle arguments so well
Ranking 32 things at once is exhausting. Nobody can hold that many opinions in their head without one of them leaking out an ear.
A bracket breaks one impossible question into a lot of small ones: this or that? Small questions, big consequences. Your harmless little round-one vote might be the reason the group favorite went home early. You will hear about it.
By the end you have a champion, a paper trail of every vote, and at least one person demanding a recount.
There are no recounts.